A Prophet with Honor: The Billy Graham Story

Martin's first book is an immense and appealing study of how Billy Graham became the ``world's most influential Christian leader'' and how Early America virtually became a Christian nation. The account starts 350 years ago with the Pilgrims spreading evangelical fervor, then progresses to portray Graham, now 72, as following the leads of evangelists like D. L. Moody and Billy Sunday. Martin, professor of sociology at Rice University, conducted some 100 interviews; he discovered no scandals but he found Graham to be a man of party politics as well as religious principles. We learn, for instance, that Graham successfully courted the favor of then North Carolina governor Strom Thurman and of Harry Truman years before his support of the Republican ticket in 1956, well before he became known as Nixon's pope. (Nov.)